Geography and Culture of South America
th
Grade level: 6 grade
Lesson duration: 2-3 class periods
Student Objectives
Students will become familiar with physical maps and their functions by reading a
physical map of South America and creating a physical map of a country of South
America.
Students will learn about the geography, environment, and human cultures of
South America by researching and presenting oral reports on a specific country.
Materials
Discovery School video on unitedstreaming: Exploring the World’s Geography:
South America
Movie embedded on South American Geography
Geography texts and library South American country resources
Physical map of South America
Procedure
1. Open the lesson by discussing what we already know about the human and
physical geography of South America.
2. Show students a physical map of South America, and demonstrate how to read the
map, pointing out where the Andes are located as well as the Amazon River.
3. Discuss and show that the Andes Mountains run through Colombia, Venezuela,
Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, and Chile. The southern Andes run through
Patagonia, and down to the southernmost tip of South America, Tierra del Fuego.
4. Show embedded movie below of South American Geography.
South A merican Geography _0002.w mv
5.
Divide the class into groups of 2-3. Explain that each group will put together a
poster and oral report on their assigned country. The reports must include the
following criteria:
A physical map of the country
Information on the country’s topography
Typical climate by season
Vegetation
Animals in the country
Unique geographic features (highest mountain peaks, major rivers or
volcanoes, archaeological finds, etc.)
Description of the human cultures (Are there unique tribes who call this
area home?)
Issues or problems (environmental or otherwise)
5 interesting facts/places to visit.
6. Talk about how each group member can contribute by dividing the work among
the members.
7. Give students time in class and as a homework assignment to research, prepare,
and practice presentations. Students may use travel magazines, geography texts,
encyclopedias, library books, and the Internet to conduct research.
8. Have groups present their reports to the rest of the class. The audience will take
notes and ask questions of the presenters.
Assessment
Use the following three-point rubric to evaluate students’ work during this lesson:
3 points Students actively participated in class discussions, worked well in their
groups without teacher guidance, used research materials wisely, were attentive
during other group presentations, presented a well-organized group oral report
that met the 5 minute minimum time limit and correctly included all eight criteria.
2 points Students somewhat participated in class discussions, were able to work
in their groups with limited teacher guidance, used research materials wisely,
were somewhat attentive during other group presentations, presented a group oral
report that was at least four minutes in length and correctly included 5 of the 8
criteria.
1 point Students did not participate in class discussions, were unable to work in
their groups or use resource materials without teacher guidance, were inattentive
during other group presentations, presented an unfinished group oral report and
poster that correctly included only 2 of the 8 criteria.
Vocabulary
Andes
Definition: A mountain system that stretches along the west coast of South
America
Context: Running north to south along the west coast of South America, the
Andes mountain range is one of the longest and highest in the world.
Equator
Definition: An imaginary line circling the Earth at 0° latitude; the equator is
equidistant from the North and South poles
Context: The equator runs through northern Ecuador and southern Colombia.
mestizo
Definition: A person of mixed European (mainly Spanish) and American Indian
ancestry
Context: There is a large mestizo population in the Andes.
pampas
Definition: Grasslands of Argentina
Context: Vast, grassy plains known as pampas cover much of northern Argentina.
rain forest
Definition: A dense, broad-leaf, largely evergreen forest occurring mostly in
tropical regions of the world that receive large amounts of rain
Context: The Amazon region of South America contains one of the world’s largest
rain forests